Ready, Set, School! Preparing Your Child for a Successful Year
JUL 16, 2025The back-to-school transition after summer can be tricky for many children but there are steps you can take earlier in the summer to make it easier.
Read MoreMindfulness is the practice of being present and fully engaged with whatever we are doing at the moment. Mindfulness is free from distraction and judgment. It is being aware of our thoughts, feelings, and actions without getting caught up in them. Mindfulness is a powerful tool that can be used to enhance your emotional well-being, reduce stress and suffering, increase happiness, improve your overall quality of life, and mindfulness helps us to accept reality as it is. Mindfulness is something you can practice at home, school, or wherever you are.
Mindfulness has its roots in ancient Eastern spiritual and philosophical traditions, particularly in Buddhism. At its core, mindfulness involves paying attention to the present moment with a sense of curiosity, openness, and acceptance. By having awareness of the present moment, we can get through challenging situations and have meaningful opportunities.
To begin to use mindfulness here are six skills you can incorporate into your daily life and start to experience the benefits of a better quality of life:
This means to notice your body sensations that come through your eyes, ears, nose, skin, and tongue. Pay attention on purpose to the present moment. Control your attention but not what you see. Push away nothing. Cling to nothing. Practice wordless watching by watching thoughts come into your mind and letting them go right by. Notice each feeling, rising and falling like waves in the ocean.
Put words on the experience, when a feeling or thought arises or you do something to acknowledge it. For example, a thought “I can do this has come into my mind”. Label what you observe and put a name on your feelings. Label a thought as just a thought, a feeling as just a feeling, an action as just an action. Unglue your interpretations and opinions from the facts. Describe the who, what, when, and where that you observe. Just the facts remembering if you can’t observe it through your senses you can’t describe it.
Throw yourself completely into the activities of the current moment. Do not separate yourself from what is going on in the moment. Become one with whatever you are doing, completely forgetting yourself. Throw your attention to the moment. Go with the flow. Respond with spontaneity.
See, but don’t evaluate as good or bad. Accept each moment. Acknowledge the difference between the helpful and the harmful, the safe and the dangerous, but don’t judge them. When you find yourself judging, don’t judge your judging.
Rivet yourself to now. Be completely present to this one moment. Do one thing at a time. When your mind wanders, come back to one thing at a time. For example, when you are eating, eat. When you are walking, walk. When you are planning, plan. Let go of distractions. If other actions, or other thoughts, or strong feelings distract you, go back to what you are doing, again and again and again. Concentrate your mind. If you find you are doing two things at once, stop, go back to one thing at a time, this is the opposite of multitasking. Remember slow down to speed up.
Be mindful of your goals in the situation and do what is necessary to achieve them. Focus on what works. Don’t let your emotion mind get in the way of being effective. Play by the rules. Act as skillfully as you can. Do what is needed for the situation you are in, not the situation you wish you were in, not the situation that is fair, not the situation that is more comfortable. Let go of willfulness and practice with willingness.
This practice involves mentally scanning your body from head to toe, bringing awareness to any sensations, tension, or discomfort. It helps in releasing physical tension and promoting relaxation. Follow these steps:
This practice involves paying full attention to the experience of eating, using all your senses to savor the food. Here’s how to practice mindful eating:
This practice involves breathing in a calming word or a calming word of your choice such as peace and breathing out conflict. Another way to practice mindful breathing is to “drop into the pauses between inhaling and exhaling”. This means breathing in, notice the pause after inhaling (top of breath) then when breathing out notice the pause after exhaling (bottom of breath). At each pause let yourself “fall into” the center space within the pause.
Now you can effectively welcome mindfulness into your daily life and experience the benefits of having a more relaxed and balanced routine. Enjoy!
The back-to-school transition after summer can be tricky for many children but there are steps you can take earlier in the summer to make it easier.
Read MoreWe often associate Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) with the winter months and the lack of sunlight, but the summer heat can also take a toll on your mental well-being.
Read MoreModern ECT is a safe, effective, and highly regulated medical procedure that can offer significant relief for individuals struggling with severe mental illnesses.
Read MoreWhen you need local health information from a trusted source, turn to the CHI Health Better You eNewsletter.